The Internet of things, called as a third wave of the world information industry after computer and the Internet, represents a development direction of a next-generation information technology. The United States, the European Union, China and the like have introduced Internet of things development plans in succession and completed forward-looking layouts of related technologies and industries. Along with popularization of an Internet of things technology, more and more conventional commodities such as an automobile, a smart meter and a monitoring device are provided with eUICCs, that is, Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) chips are directly welded on circuit boards of Internet of things terminals or directly packaged in communication modules in the Internet of things terminals, to form the Internet of things terminals.
As an authentication tool for access of an Internet of things terminal to an operator network and a security carrier bearing various applications and data, an eUICC has become a critical core technology for development of the Internet of things. An eUICC which should be configured for an Internet of things service is not only a new UICC form or a user terminal device form, but also includes the whole system established for such device in the new form. A number of objects in the Internet of things may be several orders of magnitude larger than a number of terminals in any network. An original terminal identification method is usually implemented with a string of code numbers or card numbers. If an Internet of things application is developed in an existing technical system, it is necessary to provide sufficient code number resources to mark terminals or users in a ubiquitous network.
UICCs (for example, Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards) in a current mobile network are issued by adopting a regional (provinces and cities) network management method according to different issuing places, using places and card uses. However, in an Internet of things application scenario, due to the characteristic of incapability in plugging and unplugging in an Internet of things terminal, an eUICC usually exists in the Internet of things terminal or is usually welded in a communication module in the Internet of things terminal, it is very difficult to determine its issuing place and using place when the Internet of things terminal is produced, and an operator configuration (information such as an operator network which may be accessed by the eUICC and available application and data functions is set) in the eUICC may not be modified. That is, a lifecycle of a conventional eUICC has a linear characteristic, and the lifecycle of the conventional eUICC includes stages of card making, operator selection, customization, issuing, activation, using and subscription termination, and has an irreversible characteristic.
During practical use, a user is usually required to modify an operator used by an eUICC (corresponding Internet of things terminal) or modify application and data. functions provided by the currently used operator. Because of the characteristic of incapability of the eUICC inplugging and unplugging and the linear characteristic of the lifecycle, a requirement of the user on updating of the operator accessed by the eUICC or the application and data functions provided by an accessed operator network may not be supported.